The success of modern agriculture is based on continuously improving the use of resources including, e.g., seed, fertilizer, chemicals, and land. Improvements result in lower costs of production as well as improved crop yield. Crop yield is highly dependent on the density of seeds (population) and costs are highly dependent on application rates of fertilizer, chemicals, and water. So, profit from a crop can be maximized by carefully controlling both of those factors.
Precision planting refers to controlling seed population (e.g., how many seeds per square foot) based on soil and environmental conditions. In a precision planting system, the seed density is adjusted according to a priori prescriptions developed by an agronomist. In addition to optimizing seed population, it is possible to further optimize the yields with similar precision application of fertilizer and other chemicals. Exact seed-by-seed adjustment of population as well as fertilizer application is ideal.
Conventional seed planting and fertilizing equipment include line or row planters that are pulled across fields by tractors. Line planters may be hundreds of feet across and include hundreds of individual agricultural implements (or depositing devices), such as seed dispensers, fertilizer or chemical sprayers, trash clearers, depth controllers, seed counters, and the like. Line planters are large and complex metal machinery pulled at relatively high speeds. This results in increased stress and wear-and-tear on components of a line planter so that wiring becomes prone to breakdown. Further, such conventional line planters lack precision control systems for, inter alia, precision application of seed, fertilizer, and chemicals within a section or on a row-by-row basis.
Another problem with such conventional line planters is latency. If a malfunction occurs, such as a seed dispenser failing, the operator may not become aware of the problem for several seconds if not longer. During that time, the tractor and the line planter may have traveled, thus leaving a long stretch of the field unplanted.
Accordingly, there is a need for a precision agricultural control system for precision application of seed, fertilizer, and chemicals, among other things. There further is a need for such a precision agricultural control system to operate without wiring, which is costly and susceptible to damage in the harsh environment of a line planter. Accordingly, there is a need for such a precision agricultural control system communicate wirelessly, yet be robust enough to permit communication at distance and in an environment with interference from metal and other components of the line planter. There still further is a need for the precision agricultural control system to be able to control the precision application based on precise location being planted.